Digital Revolutions - Activism in the Internet Age by Symon Hill

From Occupy to Uncut, from the Arab Spring to the Slutwalk movement, few questions about recent activism raise as much controversy as the role of the internet. This book suggests that the internet is a tool, not a cause, of social change. It has profoundly affected the way people communicate, making it easier to find the truth, to learn from activists on the other side of the world, to co-ordinate campaigns without hierarchy and to expose governments and corporations to public ridicule. But it has also helped those same governments and corporations to spy on activists, to disrupt campaigns and to create illusions of popular support.

Focused on the real-life experiences of activists rather than theory or abstract statistics, Digital Revolutions asks how the internet has affected activism, how it has allowed movements to go global more quickly and what the future holds for corporations and social movements that are doing battle online.

About the author: Symon Hill has been an activist since his teens. He has campaigned on issues including the arms trade, religious liberty, same-sex marriage, disability rights and economic injustice. He has trained hundreds of grassroots activists in campaigning skills and media engagement. He is associate director of the Ekklesia thinktank and an associate tutor at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre. He writes regularly for the Guardian, Morning Star, The Friend and Third Way. His first book was The No-Nonsense Guide to Religion.

'Symon Hill's engaging book - clearly written and accessible - talks good sense... cyber tools are a means to an end, not an end in themselves.'Peter Tatchell, International campaigner for human rights.

'It's time to fight back - on the streets, in our workplaces - but online too, and this crucial book shows how.'Owen Jones, columnist of the Independent and author of Chavs.

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